Mayor Tory’s one-stop subway is not “better transit for Scarborough”

On Monday night, STA members and allies in support of an LRT network attended Mayor Tory’s pro-subway town hall in Scarborough. The event took place at Centennial Recreation Centre and was organized by Connect Scarborough, Scarborough Community Renewal Organization and Centennial College.

Throughout most of his speech, Mayor Tory complained about LRT supporters and implored the crowd to “reach out to their councillors” to support the subway.

He is determined to push it through knowing full well that if approved, nothing else will ever get built in Scarborough, for a very long time.

All this political maneuvering and evasion made it ​almost impossible for the public to have a meaningful conversation about how best to serve transit riders who need to get around Scarborough, not just downtown. Still questions coming from the audience, showed there is growing support for better transit access with an LRT network, including the Scarborough, Eglinton and Sheppard East LRTs.

Although Centennial College, Vice President, Rosanna Cavallaro spoke in favour of improved transit, Davinder Singh, president of Centennial College Student Association raised concerns about losing the stop at Progress Campus that was part of the original seven-stop Scarborough LRT plan.

Vincent Puhakka, STA member, talked about canvassing near the Scarborough RT stations and asked what they were going to do to address the removal of stations at Lawrence, Ellesmere and Midland when the five-stop RT is replaced with a one-stop subway.

“Buses, buses buses”, was councillor De Baeremaeker’s reply.

Councillor De Baeremaeker’s wife, also attended. She attempted to revive the infamous TTC Briefing Note claiming an LRT would cost as much as a subway. This was quickly challenged by another resident who pointed out it was based on inflationary costs due to a ten year construction time line, not the usual 4-5 years it takes to build an LRT.

Franklyn Earle-McFadden, another STA member asked the Mayor to increase bus service and the number of elevators at subway stations so that transit riders with mobility issues don’t have such a hard time getting around on the TTC. MPP Brad Duguid told him he would be waiting until 2025.

Connect Scarborough, a pro-subway front group for Oxford Properties – owners of the Scarborough Town Centre was the only group allowed to have a table and to distribute information to attendees. Scarborough MPs and MPPs were also there in support of the one-stop subway, yet the Mayor seemed worried.

Perhaps deep down he knows it is a lousy plan that excludes too many transit riders in too many Priority Neighbourhoods and the rest of Toronto is not happy with the rising costs and falling ridership projections.